Today is No Housework Day, no bed-making, no dishes, no trash, no guilt, sponsored by the Wellness Permission League of Lebanon, Pennsylvania (717-279-0184). Some call today Let Someone Else Clean Day.

On this date in .........

1860: Will Kellogg was born in Battle Creek, Michigan. Will's physician brother John developed corn flakes and other cereals to serve to patients at his mental hospital, and Will founded the Kellogg company to market the cereals.

Happy Birthday to Tony Dorsett (1954)! I never saw any likeness of him walking at the end of a race, but he does hold the record for the longest run from scrimmage in NFL history.

2001: A Valparaiso, Indiana, couple who met through their mutual love of jogging were married in their running shorts after completing a 5-kilometer race in which they competed against their pastor and best man. During Wanda Johns' and Clarence Melion's wedding, the Rev. Duane Schmidt told the sweaty couple they were starting the "marathon of life." Johns' racing outfit included a white veil attached to a baseball cap, a wrist corsage and a white lace garter.

Today is Jenkins' Ear Day, marking the date in 1731 when Spaniards boarded the British ship Rebecca off Jamaica and, among other atrocities, cut off the ear of mariner Robert Jenkins. Seven years later Jenkins appeared carrying his ear before a committee of the House of Commons. As a result, the British declared war on Spain. The 4-year conflict is still known as the War of Jenkins' Ear.

On this date in ......

1988: Elders returned to Bikini Atoll to begin cleaning up the island where no one had lived since the nuclear testing of the 1940s.

Happy Birthday to publisher Hugh Hefner (83), born on this day in 1926.

April 9, 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E Lee, surrendered to the Army of the Potomac, under Ulysses S Grant, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant but admitted to West Point with his name fouled up and then changed it to match, thereby avoiding being afflicted with H.U.G. monogrammed towels.

Trying to fudge factor what statistics I can find on line, the average American consumes over 4 gallons less beer per year than the average German. An honorable, patriotic American of German ancestry would surely rise to the challenge raised by transatlantic cousins.